Gaining a heart of wisdom
One of the rites of passage in our family of four boys has been the one-on-one camp out with Dad. Around the age of ten or eleven, before they were interested in girls, before their bodies started to take on a mind of their own, my good husband took them away for a weekend of canoeing and hotdogs;… Continue reading Getting Explicit
The Great Compromise of 1990 is not in the history books -- but it should be. It all started when I sewed a beautiful quilted Christmas tree skirt the year before I got married. Naturally, I expected to enjoy it under my tree for the rest of my days. However, at some point after our… Continue reading Yes, We Do
With Buried Secrets, Irene Hannon begins another series filled with heart-stopping suspense and heart-warming romantic drama. Lisa Grant, police chief in small-town Carson, has barely transitioned from her high-stress job as a Chicago police detective when a construction crew in the village uncovers a skeleton in a shallow grave. The county sends Detective Mac McGregor to assist with… Continue reading More Truth than Fiction
A senior executive at Focus on the Family, seminary graduate, and seasoned Christian, there was every reason to think that Bruce Peppin should have scaled the mountains of midlife with skill and enthusiasm. However, with his marriage and his family relationships deeply broken and his faith in God taking a nose dive, he realized that he had veered… Continue reading Finish Well
If you're looking for a parenting resource that reads like a how-to book, that comes with a list of add-water-and-stir-guidelines and neat solutions, and that points the way to emulating the perfect life of the author, then Sand in My Sandwich is not for you. However, if you have a special needs child and wonder what it… Continue reading Sweet Relief and Hope
"Wait a minute, " I interrupted. "Read that again. Is that really in Deuteronomy?" My husband and I are reading through the Bible this year -- together and out loud. Aside from the challenge of actually being in the same room (or the same vehicle) at the same time for this daily discipline and delight, we… Continue reading God Speaks
"What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call, 'Christianity And.' If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian coloring." Screwtape In Part One of Jesus Outside… Continue reading Tired of Taking Sides?
Around our house there's a bit of common wisdom: If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. If it won't move and it should, use WD-40. Raising four boys over the past twenty years, there have always been plenty of applications for both remedies. Life Unstuck is another remedy for the stuck places in life as Pat Layton… Continue reading Spiritual WD-40
Loved Back to Life by Sheila Walsh is not a story about the good life, of God miraculously keeping His children from all difficulty. Like David's psalms, it serves as a record of the dragon's mouth, the flood's torrent, and the God who does not abandon. Carried by faith through a difficult childhood, Sheila Walsh began her… Continue reading Journey of the Soul
We've heard the stories so many times that their plots no longer phase us. Five husbands? Sure. Jewish women publicly washing the Messiah's feet in costly oil? Why not? A show-down in the temple between Grace and Law? Yeah, it's fun when Jesus outsmarts the Pharisees. A desperately ill woman healed in a crowd with just a… Continue reading Five Women. Five Stories.
Living Our Days 